Monday, September 1, 2008

More Adventures with Small Fry..... and the smallest fry!

Back in July, we loaded up the car and headed to Lexington, KY for a mini vacation. The destination was the Kentucky Horse Park which, as a friend of mine put it, is the Sea World of horses. It was a lot of fun and, really, if you are a horse lover at all, this park should be on your must-do list. While the Small Fry was a tad to young to appreciate it the way his horse-lovin' mommy did, it was a good time by all and the following are some of the great shots we got:

Of course there was the obligatory petting zoo. Here Small Fry and Mommy get to know a camel.

If Nashville is Music City, then Lexington is surely Horse City and the KY Horse Park boasts over 100 breeds in residence. One of the coolest exhibits is the Parade of Breeds where they bring out different horses in period dress and after the show you can pet them and ask questions of the handlers. Here's Mommy and Small Fry petting a Morgan horse

While we were there one of the things I really wanted to see was the Man o' War grave and memorial. For all of you folks uninitiated to the world of thoroughbred racing, Man o' War is considered one of the greatest horses ever to race and is listed in the top 100 athletes of the 20th century. He raced in the 1920's and only lost one race, beating all comers and setting records that stand to this day. When he died he was actually embalmed and laid in state at Faraway Farms in Lexington. He is buried at the Horse Park and the memorial is really beautiful, with a life size bronze statue surrounded by fountains and etchings telling his story. As an aside, there were many many bronzes at the park of all different horses and events. These were wonderful to see, not just as a horse lover, but also as an artist. Here's Jim Dear and Small Fry in front of Man o' War:

And finally, what does one do the most when one visits a park dedicated to horses? Well one goes for a ride! And ride we did... well not all of us, since Mommy was sporting a 5 month pregnant tummy, but Small Fry was on the back of pony every day we were there. I am happy to say that he took to it like a fish to water, he was never afraid and every horse we saw he'd say "I want to ride it! I want to ride ON it!" Here he is on one of the many pony rides:

On an entirely different subject, a week after returning from KY, we made the eventful trip the doctor's office to find out if Small Fry was getting a baby sister or baby brother. Now I am the most happy that everything looked healthy and normal on the ultrasound but the news of the day was that it is a baby sister! What's funny is that all along Small Fry insisted that it was a girl and not a boy. Here's her very first picture from the ultrasound:And finally, since this blog changes the names to protect the innocent, I think I'll poll my readers to get a "handle" for the new baby girl on the way. Check the poll to the right and choose your favorite.

2 comments:

You HAVE to call the baby Baby Sister. The Boy picked that name the minute he heard of her existance. As a matter of fact, I think I'm calling her Baby Sister no matter what the birth certificate says! And really, besides her actual parents, whose opinion is more important than Becky's??? :)